POLL IT BABY!

http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Check this out- I got it from a webite that had 14 new technologies that educators should watch out for in 2010 : http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/01/20/14-technologies-educators-should-watch-in-2010.aspx

You can do this FOR FREE!!!!! In 3rd grade, my kids LOVE taking polls. We use them in every subject. This would be awesome to post on the class website or blog. I think I would start as a "class poll", the move into groups, and eventually have them create one on their own. Cool stuff guys!

School Improvement Plan

Over the next few years, I think one of our school goals is to make our curriculum more align. That means, the transitioning is smoother for kids. You see, with private school, teachers have more freedom in their lesson planning which can be a HUGE positive. There is much more room to implement creative learning. However, a negative is that sometimes the curriculum does not align. For example, one teacher might teach English or Writing in a very specific way, and the other teacher might use a completely different format. They may even use different textbooks with contradictory methods. To ease this problem, we are having more meetings. For example, 1st and 2nd grade meet. Then 2nd and 3rd grade meet, and so on. Then when all come together for one "big" meeting to make sure students are where they need to be by middle school and teachers don't have 100 kids with 4 different ways of solving problems or have hugely different levels of exposure to certain areas. This hurts us is all subject areas. Think about one class doing a unit on space, then another class did a unit on animals instead. Well, what is next years teacher supposed to do? We are collected data based on surveys and feedback from our meetings. We are also making our lesson plans and curricular aims available online so we can all share what we are doing to make sure our students are equally prepared for the next year. Making our lessons available online for the entire faculty to see really helps us as teachers, and the administrators. It also helps when we receive our standardized test scores back, we can look online and see where there is a "hole" in the curriculum and how and what grade we need to fix it. We are starting to realize that it all begins in Kindergarten, and as we continue to build on those foundations, we must stay aligned. Teaching in different methods is great, but we need to have use the same curriculum guide to follow to make it easier on students and teachers. I think all our future assessments will be greatly improved by sharing lessons online with each other and using standardized tests to help measure our success and recognize our weaknesses.

CYBER-BULLYING

There are 4 types of bullying : this one has the least research because its new. But we need to be aware as teachers!

Walker Tradition at SMU!!!!

Doak Walker Article Dallas Morning News

Click the link to read the article. This is me with a picture with Doak Walker's Heisman! SWEET! Go MUSTANGS! The Walkers are MY FAVORITE!!!! The nicest family ever!

Bullying / Social Isolation

This topic has bothered me a great deal lately. It is the tpoic of discussion today in my Gifted class. I'd like to share this clip. It is light-hearted, but I feel so many of our kids are bullied, especially girls. This author wrote, Queen Bees- she is famous and travels the world helping teachers, kids, and parents. This is worth it guys.

Making another video

HAHA! It's so much fun once you get it down! I made a hysterial video for my sister that lives in Houston. I went around recording everyone in my family sending her messages-even the dogs! She was really excited and it was soemthing new no one in our family has ever done so I was pleased with my new technology skills!
Moving on, I dressed some kids up yesterday in western wear and made them act in my second video, Hoe-Down Throw Down. That's correct. I teach kids teh hoe-down for Farm Day, so I thought making a video would be way easier than me spending an entire day teaching 100 kids! Got some cool music on CCmixter.org !

Gifted Females: Role Models for teaching females

Hello! Well, I was researching today for my Gifted and Talented classes and came across some amazing statistics I just had to share!

• There are 76 women in the House of Representatives and 359 men.
• There are 17 women in the Senate and 83 men.
• 41 women have won the Nobel Prize and 765 men...the first woman was Marie Curie!

We have got to encourage our female students to look at gifted females for role models. A favorite clip of mine encouraging females comes from a great movie, "Akeelah and the Bee".

Take a look guys:

Akeelah and the Bee Movie Clip

AWESOME TEACHING TOOL

Okay- while working on a presentation, I found this AWESOME sight. This would be great for open house, presentations, or used to inspire your students. It is free video clips from inspirational movies. My favorite is the Diary of A Wimpy Kid clip! Check it out guys!

http://www.wingclips.com/

STUDENT LEARNING

Well, in terms of my school collecting data on students...I think the most important is SES status. The majority of my students have the means to have technology at home. This way, when I assign homework that requires technology, I know that everyone will be able to access the technology needed. I would never want to embarrass a student, so I think that is a very important issues. Also, I like that my school collects data on students with disabilities. I like using technology as a tool to meet their different needs. Lastly, I have seen my school collecting data on what the "feeder" high schools are using. Feeder high schools are the school that "most" of our students attend after our school. They are mostly private high schools in Dallas. So we look at what technology they use with their freshman students, and what they are expected to know. This trickles all the way down to us in elementary school starting the foundations!

Charlotte's Web Survey

http://Click here to take survey

Check out my survey for my Charlotte's Web unit?!

NYC Magnet School

I spent the day at SMU's Law School library. I must people, the school of education better get a nice library. I was wondering why the heck I spent all my time studying in Fondren with this masterpiece. No undergraduates and silence! HEAVEN! Well, I found some pretty cool things for my Gifted and Talented (G/T/)class I wanted to share.
Ok, so there are these magnet schools in NYC....if you are interested at all in G/T, you have to read "A Class Apart" by Alec Klein.....well, these 9 magnet high schools in NYC are super competitive to get in to. I mean, kids start preparing in elementary school. These kids go to the Ivys...live and breathe school, like Texans and football.
So, check out this statistic: in 2010, the kids that were admitted to these schools were:

7% black
8% Hispanic
28% white
57% Asian

It just blew my mind....it made me sad to see such a lack of diversity.
Let's go America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ideas for Project Based Learning

Hey guys! Wow, after doing our reading for the week in class, I checked out the Top 10 Innovative Ideas for Project Based Learning. My two favorites were "Life on the Streets" and "Keeping the Peace". It just blows my mind that kids are doing these. I showed my Dad the project the students did on the Japanese War Veterans and he was in shock. I am an adult and trying to learn all this technology, and chances are about 1/3 of my kids already know how to do this stuff. You should check out this site though. It will get your brain going on how you can apply these ideas to fit your class!

http://www.techlearning.com/article/1640

Teacher Tube Video : Great Kapok Tree

This is my favorite video from Teacher Tube! I read this book with my students in April. When we are doing "Third Grade Goes Green" unit. This book is great on the day we study rain forests. This would be great to do the following day with the students either as a model to create thier own, or in help understanding the book before taking their required Accelerated Reader tests online.

Kid's Podcasts

Okay! After reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson I must say that going to those recommeded webistes are incredible. My favorite was the "Coleycasts" from the students at Brent Coley. This would be so much more fun to do rather than a Power Point. I feel I always use Power Points or Photo Story, but this would be an incredible way for children to report their information. I am thinking when we study biographies, this would be a much better way for students to demonstrate what they have learned. They will have more fun creating a podcasts than writing ANOTHER book report. I am sure if this is their first experience with it, they will retain the information as well. I love using different forms of assessment, and this is a great idea!

The Classroom of the FUTURE

I actually have quite a bit to say about this (I know you are all shocked). Well, last year Ursuline Academy if Dallas (GO BEARS) asked me to work on the committee Vision 2033. I was super excited, and honored. I was the youngest and assigned to the Education committee. Actually, a student's parent is a professor at SMU and I worked with her on it. We researched for 6 months until we presented our findings.
I believe a few things will happen based on research:
1. Virtual Classrooms :
It is inevitable people! Don't fight it, embrace it. I believe students will have classes in other countries using the web.
2. Independent Study:
Rather than required courses, I think there will be several fields of study and students will pick from a variety of options.
3. Teachers are Guides:
I think teachers will serve as mentors and guides to help students on their independent path. I think teachers will have frequently meet with students to check on their progress and assist in ideas.
4. "Teacherpreneurs":
This is similar to entrepreneurs but for teachers! Hey, maybe we can start making more money! With the use of virtual classes and the ability to teach anywhere in the world, with proper marketing, teachers can teach several classes anywhere in the world!

FYI: After researching this for a year, there is some awesome stuff on the web! It is exciting!! I actually decided to pursue Technology classes at SMU after completing this research.

Creating Videos

WOW! This is the biggest feeling of accomplishment for me. I was so nervous about this assignment. I had done Photo Story several times, but I had never used Movie Maker. However, while babysitting/tutoring, so many of my students told me they had used it. I figured I could conquer this.
After our first class, I immediately asked Stephanie if I could borrow an extra camera. Being the saint that she is, she kindly let me borrow one. We met at the Nasher Museum the following Sunday to take some shots. I learned how to upload them to my computer. I played a bit with Movie Maker and audacity, then called it a day.
I was off to nanny while the parents went on a vacation. I was "MOM IN TRAINING" with 5-9 kids everyday! It was neat because since I had learned how to take video on the camera, I recorded one of the kid's baseball games...and he scored the winning run to win the game. I was able to upload and send it to his parents! How cool (I think this is why I got an extra "tip" when the paid me)! I used the kids to do some of the shots. While at their house, of course, the camera starts to get a fuzzy shot. I cleaned it and tried several modes, but I think since in was an inexpensive camera, it had run its course and was time to be retired. I had not gotten paid yet, so I decided to continue using the camera...hey, we are all struggling teachers and graduate students....we gotta do what we gotta do! I went to Church with the kids and had a talk with the "Big Man" and asked Him for some serious help in juggling so many things. I think He must have listened, because I finally finished this today! Oh, yes, the day the parents returned, I went to my other SMU class (9 hours in one summer is not the smartest), then loaded a UHAUL and moved to Houston! I arrived back from Houston today, and got my Mom to finish up the last few shots.
I was able to use our text for help in the editing process. The website CCMixter.org has an awesome selection of free music. Playing with the different animations and transitions was so easy with Movie Maker. I know this is something great to use not only in class, but in my personal life. There is so much more you can do with Movie Maker instead of using Photo Story! Watch out You Tube....here I come!